Teachers may be stupid in ways that you seem to be implying, Chris. But the students they are supposedly educating are usually not nearly so daft!
I believe however that any such curriculum development will have to be seen as emanating from teachers (if nothing else because otherwise the unions will never back it), regardless of who else is involved.
IMHO one of the key principals underpinning the open-source movement that imbues it with unstoppable power sufficient to take on even a software giant such as Microsoft without fear of being squished, swallowed up or falling victim to MS's philosophy of 'extend and embrace', is the core value of moderation by consensus that prizes merit above all else. Compared to Microsoft, the outdated teaching unions and the creaking teaching establishment is surely but small fry! If what I have in mind is both presented in the right way and made accessible in a manner that simply makes no sense for ICT students to want to learn in any other way then it cannot fail to succeed (or at least I sincerely believe so), despite how the education establishment chooses to react. David Bowles TeacherLab / Education-Support